When customers purchase television services from a provider, they are usually supplied with standard equipment, including a set top box (STB) and a universal remote control to access content, such as television programs. The set top box includes, among other things, security and decoding functions which convert incoming content to a format compatible with the customer's television. Therefore, the set top box is required to access the service provider's programming. The set top box also usually controls content navigation and storage operations, such as, for example, channel selection, content guide viewing, network interactivity capabilities (e.g., pay-per-view and video on demand requests), and recording and/or playback features. As such, customers may rely solely on the set top box for many of the features, rendering redundant the same or similar functionality included in their own equipment. As a result, customers must oftentimes set aside the remote control(s) that came with their television and/or other home electronics equipment and instead use the universal remote supplied by the service provider.
One problem with this arrangement is that the universal remote control supplied by the service provider may not exploit all of the features available on the original remote control supplied with the customer's television. For instance, a customer's television may include features such as menus to adjust video settings (e.g., color, contrast, tint, brightness, etc.) and/or audio settings (e.g., bass, mid, treble, surround sound, etc.), volume control, picture-in-picture modes, auxiliary input selection, etc. These features may be utilized by inputting appropriate commands to feature-specific controls included on original remote control. However, the universal remote control may not provide controls specific to the unique features available on the customer's television. In many cases, the universal remote control only includes controls for features specific to the set top box and/or other generic features.
This has been a source of frustration for customers, because use of the service providers' required equipment in the context renders useless many of the features unique to the customers' equipment. This has also aggravated companies attempting to differentiate their products in the consumer electronics industry, because usable product functionality is ultimately limited by the equipment supplied by the service provider.
As such, there is a need to allow customers to use the original remote control, instead of the universal remote control supplied by the service provider, to control functions of both the television and the set top box.